The Front Burner: Do hidden guns make us safer?

Last week, in Houston, Texas, at least two carjackers approached a man as he went back to his vehicle after returning a Redbox movie. They forced him out his car and shoved him to the ground.

However, victim quickly turned avenger. The man, armed with a handgun and a concealed-weapons permit, fired at the suspects. One dead, one wounded.

Gun-rights advocates say outcomes like this bear out why banning permit holders from carrying in bars, college campuses, courthouses and polling places is imprudent and justifies the need to ease requirements and expand concealed-carry rights among states.

Those of that opinion believe, as Atlantic national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg declared in a recent article, "If someone is shooting at you, it is better to shoot back than to cower and pray."

Ernie Myers, one of today's columnists, argues that sentiment in support of the right that Florida granted in 1987 — today more than 1 million Floridians legally carry hidden weapons.

On the other hand, gun-control advocates insist that for every Houston outcome, tragedy is a hair-trigger decision away. They point to the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis — teenagers shot by Floridians with concealed-carry permits.

Preventable deaths, argues Brian Wyant, today's second columnist, are why a populace armed to the teeth in public hardly produces a safer society.

By the numbers

• According to the Violence Policy Center, permit holders nationally killed 499 people between May 2007 and Nov. 2012, including 14 police officers.

• Since July 1, 2012, Florida has approved more than 173,000 new concealed-carry permits — up 17 percent over the previous year.